A Finish!!

For me, one of the fun things about finishing a quilt is the photo session that follows!

And so it was for my newly completed Farm Girl Vintage!

Of course I decided it fitting that a Farm Girl quilt needed photographing on the farm. So started my tramp around the sheds and buildings looking for the right setting....

(Warning! Self Indulgent post! Photo Heavy!)

Surely hay bales will give a suitably rustic photo?

Not enough room to lay it out.

Pin it to the rafters..... but if I step back far enough to get it all in, I fall nearly
2 metres to the ground.

The back of the calf shed —

Sort of rustic but boring.

The chook yard fence?

Oops it fits if it's sideways...

Right way up, it was too long.
But nice backdrop!

A quick closeup....showing the border fabric.
Simple quilting, with cross hatching in the border.

A few swirls in some blocks, mostly outline stitching or SID

With a chicken?

With a dog?

With a different dog?

How about in a different shed?

Sort of rustic but not enough room.

Outside the shed?

Hmmmm

Believe it or not, this was my favourie rustic shot..... but I was downhill...!

It's a wrap.

Time to roll up the quilt and feed the chickens.

And time to get on with my day :-)

Details: 

Pattern -Farm Girl Vintage by Lori Holt

Fabrics - Gathering Baskets by Kim Diehl

Made for The Country Yard as a sewalong sample.

I really enjoyed making this quilt...there are lots of possibilities and ideas for using the different blocks in different ways. A book I know I will keep on using!

Busy day today, must be off :-)

Happy stitches,

All sorts on a Friday

I got really muddled this week as I swapped work days and instead of working Friday I was home ALL DAY!!!
So all Friday I kept thinking it was Saturday!
And I woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday!
However if this is the extent of my troubles - I am grateful :-)

I made great use of being home ALL DAY to make some headway on the projects that need urgent attention. At the moment I can only share glimpses —

Sewed  this up and inserted it in the middle of a block -

- made some 'Evandale' Flying Geese - 

-and did some quilting

Happily for me, YD's turn for cooking dinner also fell on Friday this week so while she was busy preparing a delicious Creamy Bacon and Mushroom Fettucine (with homemade pasta no less) I gave myself some 'time out' with a bit of scrappy sewing.
This month's colour in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was 'Neither blue nor green'....perfect! I love that sort of colour so had no trouble finding scraps of it for my February Scrappy Sprouts blocks (see this previous post for details).
Last weekend I prepped these blocks and have had them laid out beside my machine this week. Whenever I needed a leader or ender I sewed one of the seams (then carefully laid it down in the right place!) so by Friday there wasn't too much left to do; just joining the vertical rows and then joining the individual blocks to the stem.

Finished blocks

You may remember that these blocks were inspired by the completed quilt I saw on Sue's Motherpatchwork blog *here*..... well lucky me, Sue has sent me her leftover blocks - thank you very much Sue, I'll look forward to using them in my quilt.

Delighfully scrappy and I have none of these fabrics!

After dinner I settled into my cosy chair for a little hand sewing...more for the Evandale Quilt.

I used fusible/washaway applique paper for these.

This week I am linking up to Friday Night Sew In with Wendy and soscrappy with Angela. Thank you ladies for hosting us :-)

I received another goodie in the mail this week - Kris sent me this lovely prize after I won one of the monthly drawings from OPAM.

 -including one of Kris' patterns - thank you Kris, I'm looking forwrd to stitching
this.

Very cute (sorry about the quality of the pic).

Peg and Kris do a wonderful job of co-ordinating the One Project A Month  - if you want to find out more about it, click  *here*. (There's still time to sign up for it if you wish.)
Time to put my head down and get back to it all. It's my turn for dinner tonight and I'd really like to get a decent amount of quilting done before I start thinking about that!

Happy stitches,

Time to catch up -

I had a nice day out recently when Kerryn from The Country Yard and I went down to the Strawberry Hospice fundraiser day near Coatesville (north of Auckland).

The day was run as a quilt show and Hospice fundraiser. As well as a few stalls and the quilts, there was strawberry picking...lots of people took advantage of the 'pick your own strawberries' before the plants were to be ploughed under the next day. All proceeds from these went to Hospice so it was a good cause.

The strawberry fields were given a good picking over.

The view from where we were set up.

It was lovely seeing the quilts on the lines - it was an unjudged show (viewers choice only) so there was a real mix of quilts.

Even the backs of them - not usually seen - made a good show!

Our stand was one half of this gazebo.

As you can see we had a fine day for it - it was Very Hot so we were thankful for a slight breeze that came around the side of the house and hit us.

We were near a stand of miniaturists, advertising their upcoming show.

This photo gives a better idea how tiny this pieced quilt was!

I did a little shopping. As well as a good number of strawberries (which didn't make it as far as the jam stage!), I couldn't resist this gorgeous crochet lace hand crocheted by members of a Women's artisans co-op in India. Not to be confused with most of the mass and machine produced laces and trimmings we see these days. (Sold by Provenance).  I have no idea what I will do with it but know it will find a special spot somewhere someday :-)

Since then, and on the sewing, quilting, crafting front I feel like I have little to report....I'm trying to finish some projects for the annual New Year's launch at my favourite shop but am making slow progress as Life Sometimes Gets In The Way!!! 

I can show a bit of this —

 — and a bit of this —

— but there is still plenty of sewing to do to keep me out of mischief! Hopefully I can tick a few more things off my list as the days progress. This afternoon I am receptionist at my daughter's Chiro clinic (did I tell you I had a new career?!) so this morning I will put my head down and carry on quilting.

Happy stitches!

Friday Night Sewing and OMG

Just a quick post today as the day is fast disappearing on me!
Last night I joined in with Cheryll and 27 other sewers for Friday Night with Friends..... working away in the company of others around the globe is always a nice feeling.
I spent the evening cutting more diamonds for my Evandale quilt, which I am working on for The Country Yard. I haven't really talked about it much; it is an 'in the background' project.
I've run out of papers so I have to start sewing the joined (EPP) blocks onto the next border. Then I can remove some papers to re-use. Hopefully that will be tonight's armchair sewing.

The result of my FNWF...thank you ladies for your company :-)
The diamonds I cut last night will become the wee diamond blocks seen to the
left of the photo.

Evandale is a Leonie Bateman design - below is the centre of the quilt which I shared last year. A lot of handsewing but none of it difficult...it's a very relaxing quilt to be making!

Pretty fabrics.

This year I've decided to join in and link up with the One Monthly Goal 'team' again ... I started doing this last year and found it a great motivator...at the start of the month set a goal, it doesn't matter if it is big or small (simply that it is achieveable), and at the end of the month report back with your success in completing it!
Last year Heidi of Red Letter Quilts was running it but it has now passed on to Patty of Elm Street quilts.... I used it as a way to work on completely hidden away projects that would not have got a look in otherwise. (Like the cushions I completed last month  - I was too late to link them up as a monthly goal).
I couldn't decide what to work on but after washing some runners and hanging them up to dry —

— I remembered I had another sewn but unfinished applecore runner 'somewhere'. So finishing that deeply hidden and long forgotten UFO will become my goal for February.
When I found it and spread it out, I remembered I hadn't been happy with the light tan fabric of 3 of the applecores. They don't look so bad in the photo but really do stitck out like sore thumbs.

First step then, replace those 3 applecores (sadly I no longer have access to a Go-cutter!) and then quilt and bind. No sweat huh. We'll see :-)

There do seem to be linkys left right and centre for all sorts of things. As well as great motivators, I've found them to be a good way of staying focussed and a way to share the stitchy love with like minded people. 

So to this post's motivators, Cheryll and Patty, thank you ♥

Today I've been working away on a secret project - no further sharing for now..all I can say is that I LOVE how it's turned out.

A tease-y photo!

I'm on dinner duties tonight so must get organised, thank you for visiting!

Happy stitches,